puretui

A zero-dependency, pure-stdlib terminal UI toolkit for Python (POSIX).

A styled cell-grid canvas with clipped regions, truecolor ANSI with 256/16/mono fallback, flexbox-style layout, raw keyboard + mouse input (bracketed paste, focus events), a flicker-free diff renderer, procedural widgets, an app kit (views, keymaps, command palette), and snapshot testing — in about 3,000 lines you can read in an afternoon.

from puretui import Canvas, Fixed, Flex, Theme, run
from puretui import widgets

def render(cols, rows, frame):
    cv = Canvas(cols, rows, widgets.base_style())
    root = cv.region()
    head, body = root.split_v(Fixed(2), Flex(1))
    head.left("hello, puretui", r=0)
    head.rule(r=1)
    body.center("q to quit", r=body.h // 2)
    return cv.to_lines()

run(render, on_key=lambda k: k not in ("q", "Q"))

• Zero dependencies. Python 3.8+ standard library only. POSIX (macOS/Linux).
• Explicit. Procedural drawing, plain data, no reactivity, no magic.
• Tested. 600+ unit tests, property tests, a fuzzed input decoder, and byte-exact golden snapshots.
• Fast. ~2ms full frames at 120x40; steady-state frames ~0.015ms (python3 benchmarks/bench.py for numbers on your machine).

Install

pip install puretui

Examples

python3 examples/dashboard.py    # layout, tables, sparklines, mouse
python3 examples/logtail.py      # app kit: views, filter capture, palette

Status

Pre-1.0: the API is stabilizing (__all__ defines the public surface; see CHANGELOG.md). Built as the engine of a World Cup terminal dashboard — the flagship consumer that keeps every release honest with byte-identical rendering oracles.

License

MIT